VIEWS OF CAREGIVERS ON SATISFACTION DERIVED FROM UTILIZING REHABILITATION SERVICES FOR THEIR CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL PALSY: THE CASE OF SALVATION ARMY COMMUNITY REHABILITATION AND ORTHOPAEDIC

ABSTRACT  The point to which caregivers are satisfied with the care they receive for themselves and their children from the health professionals, has increasingly become an issue for all stakeholders concerned with improving health outcomes. The Salvation Army Community Rehabilitation and Orthopaedic Centre Agona–Duakwa, provides rehabilitation services to children with cerebral palsy and for their caregivers. These caregivers mostly seek these services to address the problems of their children and themselves as caregivers as well. The purpose of this study, was to use a qualitative research approach; case study, to find out the views of caregivers on satisfaction they derive from utilizing the rehabilitation services on offer at the Centre. These views on satisfaction encompasses the prior expectations, the enabling factors to service utilization and identification of barriers that caregivers encounter that might affect their satisfaction with service delivery. Five in-depth interviews were conducted with five caregivers out of the anticipated six caregivers who had attended the centre for ten sessions or more. Data was collected and a thematic analysis was undertaken. The results showed that most of the caregivers generally reported being satisfied with the rehabilitation services. The areas caregivers reported as satisfying included the assurance, responsiveness, empathy and support services that they received from the rehabilitation team. Respondents were also content with the outcome of the service encounter on the basis of the improvement each of them had seen in their children, which they attributed to compliance with home base therapy/programmes. However, majority of the caregivers were dissatisfied with the information provided on the condition of the child, caregiver involvement in decision making and participation in treatment regimes (e.g. therapy/exercise sessions) and timely and appropriate communication of the personnel during the service encounter. Consequently, this may have been attributed to the inability of the personnel to find out the expectations of caregivers, what they perceived to be enabling or barriers in their utilization of service. In conclusion, the study findings were similar to findings of earlier researchers. The study also made some recommendations to the management which included, incorporating caregiver satisfaction into the quarterly and annual evaluation of the Salvation Army Community Rehabilitation and Orthopaedic Centre, Agona – Duakwa.